Illustrative image.
On April 6, an officer of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) ripped through his vehicle near the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The incident took place on Damascus’ southern highway. The IED which claimed the officer’s life was reportedly planted under his vehicle. An unidentified man who was in the vehicle with the officer at the time of the explosion was also wounded.
The officer, Colonel Hossam Ghayyad, was a military engineer. The exact nature of his work in the SAA remain unknown.
This was the second attack to take place in Damascus this year. On February 15, a roadside IED targeted a shuttle bus of the SAA near the Customs roundabout, in the heart of the capital. As a result of the attack, a soldier was killed and eleven others were wounded.
Security measures in Damascus are tight. Despite this, terrorists group constantly attempt to target the capital in a way or another.
Last year, the Syrian intelligence neutralized a cluster of terrorist cells in Damascus which were being run by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham from the northwestern region of Greater Idlib. The cells were responsible for eleven terrorist attacks between 2019 and 2021.
The assassination of Col. Ghayyad was either just another terrorist attack, or a meticulous operation by a hostile intelligence agency, like the Israeli Mossad.